Warnings: Spoilers for "Judgment Day", Tony and Gibbs may seem OOC
A/N: Lots of twists and turns coming! Enjoy!
"You are the one that killed Anatoli," the Russian woman said, aiming her gun at Gibbs. "I have waited years for this moment."
"Why now, Svetlana?" Gibbs asked, getting up to pour himself a drink, leaving his gun on the desk in plain view. "Why come after us after all these years?"
Svetlana snarled at him, putting the slightest bit of pressure on her trigger. "Because it took me that long to find the ones responsible for killing him."
Gibbs sipped his drink. "What was he to you?"
"Everything. He was everything to me."
"The night he died, a woman came to kill you. What happened?"
Svetlana followed his movements with her weapon, noticing the gun on the desk. "She couldn't do it."
Gibbs looked at his gun before asking, "Can you?"
He didn't expect her to hesitate, and she didn't, cocking the pistol and getting ready to fire. But before she could even pull back on the trigger, Tony shouted, "FBI! Drop the weapon!" Svetlana glanced over her shoulder to see the FBI agent enter, his gun drawn. "I mean it lady, put that gun down our I'll put a bullet between your eyes."
"Not before I put one in him first," Svetlana snarled, pulling back on the trigger at the same time as Tony let his shots fly. Her bullet shattered the window, Tony's went straight in her back, ending her life in a flash.
"Told you I'd put a bullet in you," Tony hissed under his breath.
Gibbs glared at him from the study. "DiNozzo... what the hell are you doing here?" he snapped, enraged that Tony had put his life on the line—yet again—for him.
Tony holstered his gun and stormed into the den. "You were going to go for that gun, right Gibbs?" he snapped. When the NCIS agent didn't answer, Tony turned on him. "I bet you think you were doing us all a favor, going off the rails like this, huh? Well, guess what—you weren't. If you had been shot and killed here tonight it would have made a much, much bigger mess than Jenny left us!"
"Wasn't going to get shot and killed tonight, Tony," the former marine said, tightly.
"So... you were going to go for that gun?" the FBI agent asked, then something dawned on him. "You played me! You knew I'd follow you and you knew I'd be here to stop her!"
"Are you pissed at me, DiNozzo?" Gibbs snarled, his pent up anger at not being able to control the situation finally releasing, the rage that he had let his friends die at the hands of Svetlana, dragging an innocent woman along with them. "Decker was dead! Sasha was dead! And Jenny was dead! There was no other choice!"
"Bull! You had plenty of choices, Gibbs!" Tony shouted, coming within inches of his former team leader. "You just chose the wrong play! You should have left this for the FBI to handle, you should have let me handle it! What? I'm not good enough to have found out who killed Jenny? Or were you trying to protect your ass from a botched operation all those years ago? Newsflash Gibbs! It's not all about you!"
Gibbs surprised both of them by striking Tony square in the jaw. The younger man was startled at first, stumbling backwards into the hall, but when he regained his footing and glared directly at the former marine... Gibbs knew he'd gone and push Tony too far this time.
Tony came at the older man fast—much like he did in their training spares—but this was not a training session. They took calculated swings at the other. Despite the fact that they had never actually come to blows, they each were a familiar opponent to the other. Years of sparring made them familiar, only this time they were not holding back, fueled by the pent up frustration of this damn case, and maybe years of finding themselves at odds over choices that had been made had led to the confrontation...
At some point Gibbs had know it was going to come to this. You couldn't keep putting two alpha males against each other without a fight breaking out. And Tony was putting up a hell of a fight, furiously striking out at Gibbs, and matching the former marine's blows with the same aggressive force.
Gibbs had needed an outlet for days now, since Jenny had gone missing. The need had only escalated when they had found her body in the desert. Brawling with Tony was the perfect outlet. Tony was perhaps the only one that would fight with him and then forgive him when it was all said and done. He was somewhat remorseful that every punch that managed to make contact with Tony was going to leave a mark... but he was embracing the pain of each blow that Tony landed on his own body. It made him feel something other than numb.
Grappling, they dragged their fight into the hallway—and ended it just as quickly when the warring agents tripped over a pair of boots and went crashing to the hardwood floor. The impact forced them apart and brought them back to their senses. They weren't enemies—they should not be the ones fighting.
Catching his breath, Tony pushed himself up into a sitting position, leaning against the wall. He looked at Gibbs, who was on all fours, blood dripping from his nose. "Gibbs... I..."
"Shut up, DiNozzo," Gibbs panted, pushing himself up to his knees. "Just... shut up."
"Fine..." Tony spat, tasting blood in his mouth. He must have bit his cheek in the scuffle. He looked around at the damage they had done. Broken glass, furniture tossed about... books littered the floor around Svetlana's body. "I was just going to say... it was probably about time you took a swing at me."
Gibbs glared at Tony while wiping the blood from his nose on his sleeve. "Me? You probably should have decked me years ago. What took you so long?"
Tony smiled even though it hurt. "Oh, well... I was afraid to lose my job back then. I think fighting between co-workers like that is frowned upon."
"Not frowned upon between two agents from different agencies?"
"Please... like you've never sucker punched Fornell."
Gibbs chuckled and got up on two shaky legs. How was he ever going to explain such a mess? Svetlana's body and the brawl with Tony... not to mention the diplomatic ramifications with Russia from all this...Vance was going to have his ass. He looked at Tony, still sitting on the floor. "Tony... thanks... for backing me up, for being there... to answer your question... I'm not sure I would have gone for the gun. Perhaps... I wanted her to kill me. Full circle. Everything would have been done. Now... it's just a mess."
Tony looked back at him, pensively. He knew what Gibbs was thinking; he had always known to some extent what Gibbs was thinking. "They're going to have your ass when they find her body. Probably mine too. Russia is going to be royally pissed off. But I'd take that shot in a heartbeat again, Gibbs, I wouldn't let her kill you."
"Yeah. I know, DiNozzo. And don't worry; they're not going to have my ass or yours," Gibbs finally said with a shake of his head.
"And how do you figure they won't find out?" Tony asked, brow furrowed in concern.
Gibbs sighed, heavily, "Because they're not going to find her body."
Leah had been a nervous wreck since she found out that Tony had stopped checking in with his team. She wasn't sure what was going on, Greg couldn't divulge any details to her but she was feeling so sick to her stomach at times that she physically got ill.
Copper tried his best to cheer her up by sticking to her side and snuggle with her, but even his warm, soft body wrapped up next to her on the sofa was not helping. Leah needed Tony to call her... she balled her fists up and started to cry again. What was wrong with her? This was not the first time that Tony had been working on a case where he had not been able to contact her. She was acting like the end of the world was coming.
Maybe it was, she realized as the news broke into the program she was watching to report on a house fire in Georgetown where it was believed a former director of a federal agency lived. Leah startled and grabbed for the remote, turning up the volume. As she listened to the report she knew—the fire was in Jenny's home and somehow, she was certain that Tony and Gibbs had something to do with it.
The locks turned in the door and Copper bounded off his spot next to her, happily rushing at the door to greet his master. Tony stepped inside the apartment, dropped his bag down by the door and reached out to scratch the dog behind the ears. "Hey, boy, did you miss me? Huh? Take good care of Leah for me?"
"He did a better job than you!" Leah hysterically cried, jumping off the sofa, tears streaming down her face. "No one has been able to reach you! Why didn't you call me? I was worried sick about you!"
"There was no time. I needed to get to Gibbs before he did something stupid. I'm sorry, sweetheart," Tony said, gently. He shut the door to the apartment and locked it up. Turning, he opened his arms to her.
She gladly took the invitation and fell into them, burying her face against his clothing. He stroked her hair, softly, murmuring that it was okay. Leah grasped his shirt and pulled back and studied him. She suddenly noticed the busted lip, and the swelling on his jaw. "What... what happened to you?"
He smiled, tightly and shook his head. It had been a hell of a day. Tony was glad that it was over. He'd briefly reported in to Greg that he had found Gibbs and that their suspect, Svetlana... or otherwise known as Natasha... had disappeared. He gave Greg the story that she must have run off with her lover... "I'm fine," Tony told her, "Happy to finally be home."
"Is that Jenny's house on the news?" Leah asked, gesturing over her shoulder at the television.
"Yeah," Tony told her honestly.
"Did you find her? Is she back in D.C?"
"Gibbs tracked her back here. When I caught up with him to arrest Jenny... the house was on fire."
Leah backed away from him and went to sit down on the sofa. She ran her hands through her hair before she grabbed the remote and shut the TV off. It was not the way she had imagined things ending. "How... how did the fire start?"
Tony sat down on the sofa with her. "Fire fighters we spoke to think gas leak. Won't know until they can investigate. They wanted us out of there real quick." He reached an arm out of her, silently requesting that she come closer to him.
She silently granted his request. Resting her head on his chest, Leah felt the tension leave her body, but not the sick to her stomach feeling. She slowly started to drift off to sleep deciding that perhaps tomorrow she would call the doctor because it appeared she had contracted a spring case of the flu.
Tobias was furious and rightfully so.
Gibbs was sitting on the sofa in his living room, using his beer bottle to nurse his swelling cheek, when the front door swung open and Tobias stormed into the house. He wasn't surprised and quietly offered, "Hey, Tobias."
"Don't hey me!" Tobias shouted. "I get off the plane in D.C only to be informed that Jenny Shepard's house has burned down with a body inside! FBI knows it's not her, NCIS knows it's not her! Maybe I'm better off not knowing... but what the hell were you thinking?"
"SecNav and Vance wanted anything that has to do with that operation in Paris to disappear," Gibbs said, wincing when he shifted his body. Tony had really beaten him up. I guess I trained him well. "Davenport wanted me to make the whole thing go away. And before you start screaming and shouting about getting Tony involved... your director was more than happy to play along—you know they didn't want to inform the public that they had let a high profile suspect slip through their fingers."
Tobias glowered at him. "So this was one big giant cover up from the beginning was it?"
Gibbs shook his head. "No. Not until Jenny was found dead in the diner. Before that there was no need to cover it up."
"And what am I going to tell Russia when I inform them that four of their nationals were shot to death here in America?"
"I don't know, you're smart, Tobias. And they all had their hands in illegal work. Probably won't come as a surprise to their country."
Tobias continued to glare at Gibbs. "Did you set fire to her house?"
Gibbs kept a neutral expression. "It was sanctioned."
"And DiNozzo?"
"In the clear, Tobias. Tony played everything by the book."
"You just couldn't tell him what you and SecNav were planning, huh?"
He shook his head and pulled his beer away from his cheek to take a sip. "No. If it didn't work I wanted Tony's hands to be clean," Gibbs said.
Everything was starting to become a bit clearer for Tobias. "You weren't sure if Tony would take the bait and follow you," Tobias stated.
Gibbs sipped his beer and just grinned, tired. No, he wasn't sure if Tony was going to take the bait, but he had counted on it. If Tony hadn't showed up, Gibbs was prepared to die, it only seemed fitting since Decker and Jenny were already dead—they had all botched that mission together. "He took the bait."
Tobias wasn't going to ask any further details on what happened in that house before the fire. The entire case was stamped with the words classified and cover up, that way both NCIS and the FBI came up smelling like roses. "Tony isn't going to be happy when he finds out you played him." When Gibbs didn't say anything, Tobias chuckled, "He already figured out you played him..."
"He did."
"And you're still standing..."
"Small mercies I suppose."
Tobias heaved a sigh and turned to go. "Don't take this the wrong way, Jethro, but I hope our paths don't cross for a while. You always seem to bring trouble along with you," he said, smiling at his old friend good-naturedly.
Gibbs chuckled, softly and took another sip of his beer, "Likewise, Tobias," he said, rising his bottle towards the other man, "Likewise."
National and local media was lapping up the story of a suspended federal agency director dying in a house fire. Only ones that knew the real truth, that she had been killed in a shoot out in the middle of the desert were the FBI teams and NCIS teams involved in the investigation of her death.
Langer shut the television off that was broadcasting news about Jenny's funeral and looked around the empty bullpen. Gibbs, Ziva and McGee had all attended Jenny's memorial service. Having no emotional ties to Shepard, Langer had paid his respects at the wake the previous night and come into the office to get some quiet time to work on back logged paper work.
By the time the rest of the team arrived, looking solemn, Langer had finished his paperwork. He didn't bother to ask how things went, he could see it in their eyes that it had not gone well. "Director Vance requested to see all us when you got back, Gibbs."
"What for?" Gibbs inquired, eyes traveling up towards the Director's office.
"He didn't say," Langer replied. "Said it was urgent."
Gibbs sighed. "Let's not keep him waiting," he said, leading the team up the stairs.
Vance was standing behind his desk, waiting for them, watching as they entered. He instructed McGee to close the door. "Rough few days," he said. "Officer David... the liaison position with NCIS is being terminated. Pack your bags. You're going home."
Ziva looked uncertainly at Gibbs but knew that the decision was final. And Vance wasn't done yet; he reassigned McGee to the Cyber Division; Langer was being reassigned as an agent afloat. It was like someone had sucked the air out of the room the tension was so thick.
"Agent Gibbs," Vance said, handing the lead agent three folders, "meet your new team. All of these assignments are effective immediately."
Tony crossed the street and made eye contact with Tim. Straightening his suit coat, Tony sat down at the table with his former partner. "Hey. What's going on? Your phone call sounded pretty serious."
Tim swallowed the anxious bile in his throat. It had been a long morning cleaning out his desk and transferring all this things down to the sub basement. "Vance broke up the team. Sent Ziva back to Israel and me to the Cyber Division—sent Langer to be the Agent Afloat on the Ronald Reagan."
"Why all the sudden change?"
"Classified operation. But I'm worried about Gibbs."
"Gibbs has dealt with new agents before."
Tim shook his head. "But not like this, Tony. Vance just pulled the rug out from underneath him. He struggled to adjust to Langer being the SFA... can you imagine what he's going to be like with three new agents? What he's going to do to Agent Lee?"
Tony startled at this piece of information. "Lee? Vance reassigned Lee to the team? She's a better lawyer than a field agent, McGee. Her file has to reflect that and Vance had to have read it. What's really going on?"
"I can't say," Tim said with a shake of his head.
"So... the move was calculated," Tony said. "And Gibbs is the only one that doesn't know about it."
"Think Langer is in the dark too," the NCIS agent quipped. "He wasn't apart of Vance's plan."
"But you and Ziva were," the FBI agent countered. Tony leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. "You need something from me, Tim?"
Tim sighed and looked around at the crowd before looking back at Tony. "Nothing... yet," he answered, honestly. "It's just... this whole situation reeks of something hinky."
Tony nodded in understanding. "Okay. If you think you're getting in too deep, Tim, don't wait as long as I did to speak up—to remove yourself from the situation, got it?"
"Yeah, I got it," Tim replied as Tony's cell phone rang.
"Need to take this," Tony said, holding his phone up. "Been working an embezzlement case all week. You going to be okay, Tim?"
He sighed and nodded. Tim didn't want to take up anymore of Tony's time. He wasn't even sure why he had contacted Tony in the first place. There was nothing that Tony could do and there was nothing that Tim could read Tony in on. It had just been a natural instinct to seek Tony out...
Tony gripped his shoulder, gave Tim a reassuring smile, and got up from the table answering his phone call. Later the two men would recall this particular conversation, their worries for Gibbs... and they were going to wish they had done something about it sooner. Much, much sooner.
